Mr. Tom Moylan:

No, but having to disclose the amount of one's salary has been raised with our members as a potential data protection issue. We respect that, under a public declaration, local authority members must declare their employment status, be that PAYE, self-employed, a profession or a consultancy business. It is the private declarations that we fail to understand. If I work for a company that has come into conflict with the local authority, I should declare my interest as an employee of that company regardless of whether I am working for the minimum wage or on €100,000 a year. To us, the conflict stems from one's employment. The question of why a private declaration is needed on top of that is a principled matter for our members.

Deputy Calleary referred to how the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in his discussions with it, stated that this would not place additional requirements on people and that the Bill is just pulling a number of Acts together. However, the private declarations are new in terms of what our members must report. If the Department made that point, I do not agree with it.

A PAYE worker gets a P60 at the end of the year but not a tax clearance certificate. The onus will now be on that worker to go to the Revenue Commissioners and seek a tax clearance certificate or statement saying that he or she is tax compliant even though he or she already has a P60. When we were drafting our submission, a question was raised about whether a P60, as opposed to a tax clearance certificate, would suffice. For a PAYE worker, a P60 is his or her tax clearance certificate.

Once again, it is about barriers. To us, participation in local government is only good if it involves a cross-section of people from all walks of life - young, old, male, female, working and non-working, PAYE workers and the self-employed - who are willing to put their names forward to represent communities at a local level. These are just further barriers to getting people to put their names on the ballot paper, something we want to encourage.